Oh that was really fun, I only listened to the CitW section, but it was just so much fun hearing them geeking out about it! I have to say that I totally didn't notice the human sacrifice motif at the opening of the movie the first time I saw it, but it was wicked obvious the second time I watched.

This is my first post -I've been keeping an eye on Whedonesque for years so I'm finally joining in woohoo! Hello everyone.

I was nodding along to pretty much all of what they were saying in this podcast, including about the CGI, that scene was so hilarious & silly that the patchy CGI just felt fitting. :)
I too didn't notice the motif at the beginning.

I've only seen it once, can't afford to see it at the cinema again (esp with Avengers coming up) but as first viewing it was spoilt (only) a little by what i already knew, hence i think I'll enjoy it more a second time round. FIrst off, the Odeon synopsis on their website said outright that the Cabin was designed for punishment (OK so that was hinted at in the trailer already and set up in the first five minutes of the film and wasn't the main twist, but still...), also the trailer - Marty's death - I knew he was going to reappear & knowing that was irritating in itself, plus the Croydon Vue cinema synopsis made mention of 'alternate dimensions' so I thought there was going to be some sort of time-travel related weirdness -when Curt rode the bike into the boundary, I thought it would skew time up and at least Dana would go back in time somehow hence see Marty again. So therefore the real twist fell slightly flat for me, and I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about the ending. Plus, I personally didn't know whether or not I could trust Sigourney Weaver's explanation, and i know now that Joss & Drew intended us to. I was wanting to scream at Dana when she had the gun 'no! There must be another way!' when really there wasn't (other than do nothing, of course). Oh, and also when Dana said "I don't think Curt even had a cousin..." made think for a second, had it not been the closing shot, wow maybe Curt's in on this!! I thought it was odd that Curt would think he had a cousin when he didn't?

However, in retrospect, having read loads on the internet now and thought about it all, i am so much more excited about this film than when i first walked out of the cinema and can't wait to see it again.

My favourite line "Yeah, I had to dismember that guy with a trowel…so what have you been up to?" So many funny lines though.